Ancient History's Annotated "Magic and Death"

This is an annotated version of a key transcript in the Cybertechnology sourcebook, which I felt needed a bit of explanation on some points.

>>>>>(This transcript of a couple of interesting phone conversations came my way just as I was preparing to post the other material. I won't say how I came by it, but the source is damn reliable. It was encrypted in the original, of course. Static interrupts it in one important spot, and I don't know the names of the people talking (though I have my suspicions, and they're two human mages). No images-these people wouldn't use vidphone links. And once again, read-only format-this seems too important to frag with.)
-Captain Chaos (16:28:14/12-11-56)

As a temporal reference, please note that this takes place approximately halfway between the events of Harlequin's Back and Dunkelzahn's Assassination.

¥
The real issue is who's doing this. Let's face it, most of the specialists we know are horrifed by the use of magic to trap the spirit in a dead body.

W
And some of them are taking active steps to deal with that.

¥
Yes, we'll get back to that. But what have you got on this?

W
I thought we agreed to trade information at your request. It's up to you to put something up front.

¥
Okay. I know of two organizations that instruct initiates in cybermantic magic - one in Britain, one in South America.

W
You have the advantage over me on the former score, though I've heard stories. I know of a third in Azania.

¥
News to me.

W
I thought that was the idea.

¥
(Laughs) Let's deal with the one we both know something about. The Azzies.

W
Yes. Rumors have been circulating for some while that the Prez popped his clogs some time back and is sustained in some form of death-cheating afterlife. There are a thousand versions, from his disembodied brain lying in a bucket linked to a thousand and one cyberdevices, to his being a spirit-infested zombie shambling around the top level of one of those pyramids.

Rumors of Juan Aztcatapolco, President of Aztechnology, being dead have been around since 2045, despite his public and private appearences. The disembodied brain brings to mind the experiments of Dr. Halberstam, which might be a future use of cybermancy.

¥
The zombie thing is a sidetrack.

W
Of course. Animating a corpse as the houngans do is an entirely different matter. It's got nothing to do with keeping a spirit tied to a body it should have left. The corps cadavre has no spirit-it's just a lump of animated meat.

Voudoun practitioners (particularly the boccor) can use the corps cadavre spell to animate a properly prepared dead body. Practitioners of voudoun can also bind minor spirits to the specially prepared bodies of the dead, and called these shambling creations zombies (also known as loa zombies or astral zombies). In both cases, the spirit of the metahuman has already departed - only the power of the spell or spirit gives motive power to the corpus, and the body remains dead with no memory or true cognizance, and no volition save the will of the magician.

¥
What about the blood magic angle?

W
That's a question of how. Enough to say that the human sacrifice tales aren't purely speculative. But we can get down to the how another time. For now, let's keep it down to who. Tell me about the Brits.

¥
The Ordo Maximus.

W
Surely not?

¥
I have a good contact, an ex-member who went through the preliminary and mid-grade initiations and knows most of the big noises. It's one of the reasons he got out.

W
They have a reputation for being a bunch of well-juiced old farts.

¥
That's a useful reputation to have if you mess with cybermantic magic. Keeps other people's attention off you. A lot of the wannabees are juiced old farts, as you put it, or younger versions of them. The OM makes a point of recruiting the sons of rich nobility, letting them into the lowest ranks, and pocketing huge wads of cash for their lifetime membership subscriptions.

W
Thus perpetuating the image.

¥
Bingo.

W
Comparison with the Azzies makes me wonder about the human sacrifice angle-whether this might be a necessary element, at least in these two instances.

¥
That's complicated. If there's a link with the Brit druids, it would be with the hermetics and definately not the shamanic Celtic types. Human sacrifice isn't unknown to them, but it's a completely different matter. The hermetics are said to practic human sacrifice, but try saying that in Britain. Your libel laws are something fearsome to behold.

The Ordo Maximus is a fairly well-known initiatory group in Britain. There are several different types of druids in Shadowrun. The "Celtic" type are actualy shamans or Idol-followers, often following Celtic deities (Cernunnos as the Horned Man, Lugh as the Wise Warrior, Don as the Great Mother, etc), embodiments of nature (Sun, Moon, Oak, etc.), animals (boar, horse, stag) or even mythic animals (Wyrm). "English" druids, on the other hand, refers to mages who adhere to the school of Hermetic Druidism. The elven magicians of the Path of the Druid in Tír na nÓg make up the final expression of druidism. The use of blood magic is not unknown among Celtic and English druids, although it is extremely rare.

W
Is there an association with a corporate interest? Obviously with the Azzies, the cult is the country is the company, if you know what I mean. Are we dealing with the

(Static)

¥
Then that's not clear. How does the Azanian angle shed light on this? Or does it?

W
That's wholly different. An Azanian hermetic organization exists whose members know the formulae and rituals for cybermantic magic, but they do not practice it. It's anathema to them. That's not to say there aren't one or two who may have learned what there is to learn and then skipped the roost.

¥
This is pretty much a closed book to me. I know little about these people.

W
Charachteristic American parochialism. Actually, the Heavenherds are not unhappy about that. So far as I can tell, this organization doesn't proselytize.

¥
Frag that's a lot of words for ten seconds on a telephone line. (laughs)

W
They don't recruit. They don't have wannabees. They don't take in company mages. Membership is not only exclsuive, but hereditary.

¥
So if you want in, forget it unless you have the right genes.

W
Correct, Elven genes of course.

¥
Ah. Now that's different.

W
Very different to the Azzies or the Brits.

The Heavenherds were the elite of the Theran magicians during the Earthdawn era. It is interesting not only to note that the elven lines have survived in the area of a former Theran colony. The Heavenherds recruited magicians of any race into their ranks, but it is thought by some of us conspiracy theorists that the core were elves, perhaps dragonkin elves.

Aztechnology is opposed to the various Immortal Elves, hence the general antipathy toward the two Tirs. The British nobility has a high percentage of UGE, but the New Druidic Movement that controls the government is wary of the elves of Tír na nÓg.

¥
What does the Cabal think of that?

(Long pause.)

W
I really wouldn't use that word if I were you.

¥
The encryption on this line-

W
I said, I really wouldn't use that word if I were you.

¥
Okay. But I can't believe they can overhear on this line.

The infamous Cabal, the subject of Lone Gunman's posting in Threats, is an enigma. All we can say for sure at this point is that they are feared as well as secretive. Hey, maybe they are Immortal Elves, who knows?

W
I didn't hear that. Now, let's try and sum this up. We reckon that there are three hermetic organizations that know cybermantic magic in enough depth to produce mages who can cheat death: the Ordo Maximus, the Azzies, and the Azanian Heavenherds.

¥
Okay.

W
The next question is how these guys spread out, and who's working where. How the damn cancer is metastasizing, if you like.

¥
I thought we agreed to deal with the mechanics of it.

W
You want to do that first? Okay. Let's get down to that. Ritual magic is the backbone of it, obviously.

W
Not all of them. The circle needs only one to do that. It comes at a late stage of the ritual.

Just on the mechanics here, I shall note that so far Cybermancy requires a group, or "circle" of magicians of the same tradition (in these cases, Hermetic Mages). The ritual magic aspect may denote Ritual Sorcery to cast the complex cybermantic spell formulae, some form of ritual enchanting or conjuring, or a combination of these techniques.
Certainly, the Astral Quest that must be done near the end might be indicative of, in present terms, summoning a Great Form spirit, or perhaps binding a spirit, conjuring a spirit or discovering some important information; any of which is plausible in considering how cybermancy is achieved.

¥
What steps have we identified? I'll start the ball rolling. It is essential, as I understand it, not only to have the meat body of the - what are we going to call him - victim? Idiot?

W
Client?

¥
(Laughs) Yeah, right. I didn't know you had a background in the world's oldest profession.

W
I beg your pardon?

¥
Marketing (laughs). I mean "client"!? Marketingspeak. Either that or what your two-bit therapist calls you when he's uncovering all those sad, sleazy little complexes in your head.

W
(Chuckles) All right. Let's settle for "subject." Anyway, you've got a lot more shrinks over there than we do over here.

¥
You need more than the subject for the ritual, so I hear. You also need items that are tied to the individual, that have strong emotional significance. The wedding ring from that terrible first marriage that ended with the subject's wife face-down in the Potomac, or whatever. That kind of thing.

W
Not absolutely correct, but it helps.

¥
Why? I don't understand the mechanics of this. Usually, you need this kind of thing when you don't have the subject, to provide a ritual link.

W
Let's get something straight. Some of the things useful in some rituals - neutral items, like a photograph of the person - are useless for the cybermantic ritual. Only powerfully associated items will do for this one - like the wedding ring example you give. I've even heard of a childhood toy being used.

¥
You're kidding.

W
No. A piece of filthy blue blanket. Apparently the guy had kept it as a comfort object all his life, mopped his brow with it when he got stressed. He had strong emotional asociations to it.

¥
I've read some material on this. What's this kind of thing called?

W
Transitional object. Read up on your object-relations theory.

¥
Transition to what?

W
That's not important right now. We're digressing. Anyway, this kind of object improves the chances for success, hough it's not critical. As I understand it, by collecting as many fragments of a person's emotional life in one place as possible, a greater intensity is achieved which makes the effects of the ritual more powerful.

(Pause)

¥
I'm thinking about that. I don't think I like what just occurred to me.

W
Which is?

¥
Sacrifice.

W
Correct. The chances are improved by killing someone emotionally significant to the client during the ritual. As I've heard it explained, the emotional linkages of the spirit to the outside world are thus diminished and this makes it easier to focus the remaining spiritual energies within the machine-body. But that would have to be done without the subject's knowledge to avoid major emotional stress, even though the sacrifice takes place in proximity to them.

¥
Why in proximity? I always understood that physical distance didn't matter with such linkages.

W
Technically it doesn't. The effect is more on the magicians involved than on the subject. Having everything within the direct field of attention makes the ritual easier for the participants.

If I were to look at this from the perspective of Earthdawn magic, I'd say that the ritualists were attempting to minimize the number of connections between the Pattern of the subject and other Patterns. From the perspective of Shadowrun magic, I'd say that what the magicians were doing was destroying any possible ritual links to the subject (not counting symbolic links), with the effect of his spirit becoming more "isolated" perhaps, and easier to manipulate. Perhaps this is to minimize the chance of the subject manifesting as a ghost and developing a chain.

¥
Okay. Well, that's that, then. The next issue is spirits.

W
This is getting interesting.

¥
I've heard contradictory rumors about this. Some people say an intercession by some spirit form is necessary, and it has to be a spirit of man. Others say that coercion is possible, that the magician sent into the astral can force a spirit to give up some karma or energy to power the binding of the subject's spirit to the dead body.

W
Both are technically possible. The latter is certainly true in some instances. The Azzies, I think, approach things differently.

¥
The blood spirits.

W
Yes.

It's interesting to consider how a Hermetic Mage would summon a Spirit of Man, unless they were initiates of the Unified Magic Theory school or possessed a Summoning Talent. Possibly it involves a free spirit of some sort, which could explain the "karma or energy" given up. The exact type of spirit is left unmentioned, but certainly an Ancestor spirit would appear to be a likely candidate. The blood spirits summones by Aztlaner blood mages may qualify as a spirit of man in this case.

¥
What's the cost to the magician?

W
The drain is staggering. That's another reason why the Azzies use human sacrifice, of course.

¥
How else could it be handled?

W
The Azanians have an entirely different set of formulae

¥
True, but you said they don't actually do it. Nice to have the formulae, but without field testing I wouldn't want to risk my soul on it.

W
You wouldn't want to do that anyways. But I gather they've been tested.

¥
But you said they didn't do this.

W
The data are somewhat antiquated.

¥
How antiquated?

W
Say ten thousand years or so. So I'm given to understand, at any rate.

W
I wasn't told the details. Let's just say the source has enough power to make me think he knows what he's talking about.

¥
Did they give you any idea of the principles behind their techniques? I mean, this is vital. We know the Azzies use sacrifice and blood spirits tocope with the drain. I've heard related stories about the Ordo Maximus, though not about blood spirits. If there's a way to handle this without recourse to such horrors, then this puts an entirely different complexion on things.

W
I'm not sure about that, but as I understand it a Great Spirit can intercede.

¥
A Great Spirit of Man? Frag, I wouldn't want to try to coerce one of those things.

W
Coercion isn't involved.

¥
How could you possibly get one to do this voluntarily?

W
It's not a Great Spirit of Man - at least, not as we know it. I'm not really up to the task of describing this properly, I'm afraid. It's one of those ineffability things. (laughs)

¥
Oh, that's helpful.

W
I think we should talk again when I've looked up some friends regarding cybermancy's spread and development. Not to mention the implications, and what happens to the retained spirit. The karma costs are great, of course, but I want to find out more before we speak again.

¥
Okay, I can do the same. Later.

Ten thousand years would put it roughly at the very beginning of the Fourth Age (ED era), before the Scourge, before the Theran Empire...maybe even before Blood Wood. If they have kept the data that long, it's an impressive achievement for their librarians, at least.
The interesting note, however, is the implication that the Azanians may have access to less draining rituals which would negate the need for blood sacrifice.

Second Conversation

¥
Good to hear from you. How's tricks?

W
Could be better. Had some trouble with an ally.

¥
Those things can make difficult pets.

W
I wouldn't let him hear you call him that. I certainly don't think of him that way.

¥
OK, down to business. I've found it difficult to trace the places where cybermantic magic is being taught, or whether there's some kind of hermetic diaspora out there spreading the poison around. Lips are sealed tight on this one. But I did hear certain things about Tir Tairngire.

W
That rumor's relatively fresh. It's a little early to be clear about it one way or the other.

¥
The way I hear it, the Princes have an interest in this because of the Azzies, whom they hate with a passion. They could be researching countermeasures or simply trying to understand what's involved.

W
The latter is hardly difficult. After all, the various factors involved in the rituals are well known.

It may well be that the Tir is trying to determine the style; the Azzies' technique might be recognized.

¥
True. Let's talk about that some more. It seems that cybermancers are going to an awful lot of trouble for a meager reward. The rituals are difficult, time-consuming, and they involve deathly drains. What's more, they need to be repeated, don't they?

W
That depends on exactly how much metal is put into the flesh. If the strain of bearing all the metal is high, then yes, such complications can arise fairly often.

¥
So why bother? It costs the earth in time, money, and resources. It's a short-term fix. What kind of deal is that?

W
A lot of people will pay anything to cheat death, even for weeks or months.

¥
But that's not the point. In some cases, we're talking about people who are quite capable of staying alive. They just want to burden their bodies with ridiculous amounts of cyberware beyond their capacity to tolerate. That's quite different.

W
That's rarely the reason for major cybermantic magic, outside of corporate interests. And it isn't the real purpose. Frankly, this kind of thing is just using the meat as experimental objects.

¥
Okay, let's agree to disagree on this. But what's in it for the mages? That's the issue. They have to perform rituals with no benefits for themselves and every chance of things going horribly wrong. Sounds very, very dumb to me.

W
I think we've gotten to the crunch. As I understand it, it's partly a power trip. Play with cybermancy and you play with the basic processes of life itself, and the integrity of the spirit. There's no bigger game to play. Especially when you consdier the auxilary aspects - the astral operations, dealing with Great Spirits. The cybermages become intoxicated with power. I think it's that simple. What's that line - "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"?

¥
Familar to us seps.

W
Hindu mythology, actually. Change it to "Now I am become life, the cheater of death" and you've got the cybermancer's power trip.

¥
That doesn't sound right somehow. There has to be more.

W
There is.

(Long pause)

¥
Okay. With the Ordo Maximus, I think the power trip may be all there is to it - or pretty much. it hink they're just into the power and secrecy number. With the Azzies, we're dealing with something else.

¥
There's - I don't know how to put this - there's almost a religious fervor about it. I mean, sure, they have a shamanic priesthood and the state religion and all that drek but I mean real fervor. Like the Inquisition or something.

W
An interesting parallel, given the role of the Jesuits down there.

¥
Let's not get into that. We'll be here all day. Those South American Jesuits are a little different from the European variety, but you'd know more about that than me.

W
Back to the Azzies. You're right. They don't just do it for the sake of power-tripping. The astral conduit is a major factor for them.

¥
I've never gotten close to that.

W
Wise man. The astral plane is polluted where they work. They are building some kind of bridge to something, and I think the answer lies there. It's something sinister and dreadful.

¥
We can't discuss that, even on an encrypted line.

W
No.

At this time, the Azzies were working overtime to construct a bridge to the Tzitzimine, or Horrors, across the metaplanes. I think the astral quests and blood magic they use in their rituals allows them to add to the bridge, a bit at a time. Now that Darke is gone, the bridge shattered and the way protected; I wonder what else the Azzies are doing with cybermancy

¥
Okay. What about your chummers, the Azanians?

W
Different again. We're talking pure knowledge. But a Great One has sometimes - rarely - been sustained in life by binding spirit to body after his death. It's done for symbolic purposes, when the great one is needed to make a final judgement about soem major issue. Choosing a new Governor, that's happened once.

¥
Governor?

W
The term used for the head of the Hermetic College. It's more than a purely symbolic role, I have to say. but I', digressing. it has been done, but my source says their techniques are abody of knwoeldge that has come to them from ancient history rather than something they chose to develop or work with.

¥
It doesn't sound like these guys are responsible for any spreading of teachniques or teaching.

W
I doubt it. And that poses a major question for us.

The term "Great One" may be synonymous with the ancient Earthdawn term "Great Elf", which refers to dragonkin or Immortal elves. In any case, the term "Governor" is a Theran title for the colony, which appears to have been retained for the head of the college. It has been hinted at before that certain titles/positions convey power; indeed, the head of the Black Lodge gains the status of "Pure Magician," and the Aztlaner Emperor of the Sun is supposed to have a similar position.

¥
There was something you said you were going to come back to?

W
Ah yes, the Ordo. There's a closer affinity between them and the Azzies than you know.

¥
Try me.

W
On the blood count.

¥
What do you mean?

W
Some people in the Ordo aren't people.

¥
Look, stop talking in riddles and give this to me straight.

W
Tut, tut, you Americans are so impatient. That's what comes of living in an instant-gratification culture.

¥
Dump the drek.

W
(Laughs) All right. There are vampires in the Ordo Maximus. I think they have access to magical rituals which allow them to use the Essence drain from victims to offset the drain of cybermantic magic. Needless to say, I haven't gotten far trying to find out much more. It's not something I'd want to risk, frankly.

¥
You think that geek de Vries was right, then?

W
He got initiated into the middling grades. I think he knew. He may even have met one or two of them. There are a hundred and one tales about how he got infected. If he does know anything about the rituals, he certainly hasn't been spilling the beans.

¥
This is an extra angle I don't want to think too much about.

(Long pause)

Martin de Vries was a member of the Ordo Maximus, discovered it was run by vampires dealing in some strange metaplanar weirdness, and started hunting vampires.

¥
Okay, who's putting up some of the big nuyen for all this drek when it gets out into the big wide world? Let's talk about that. I think most people know that Saeder-Krupp's German outfit has money behind the Ordo Maximus.

W
No secret there.

¥
I believe the same source is responsible for supplying Villiers and Fuchi with trained personnel. In the latter case, Fuchi mages were trained in the rituals.

W
I didn't know that.

¥
I have a damn good source on that. How come you didn't know? You're the one across the Pond (laughs).

W
(Laughs) Yeah, but you're the ones who dye the rivers green on St. Paddy's day and I bet you don't know about the Tír na nÓg interest. Not that that's so big a deal, in my opinion - but don't quote me.

¥
Touché. Okay, let's trade. There's an interesting angle on the Fuchi story. A condition of the training is that the mages give up enough of themselves to let the Ordo keep tabs on them, shall we say.

¥
Right. Ritual magic! "We train your mages, but we make damn sure we can keep an eye on what they're doing, and if we don't like it then we can frag them senseless."

W
It's called franchising (laughs).

¥
Sort of, I guess. But why?

W
Money. With the SK deal, many millions must have changed hands. Those grimoires cost money. Have you seen the price of orichalcum these days?

¥
Tell me about it. But I suspect the power trip is something to do with it too. "Now we've got a big corporate buddy and he pays us lots of money, aren't we important?" Even in our world this counts for something.

W
That too.

¥
Frankly, I wouldn't want to give up some of my soul to a bunch of fraggin' vampires.

W
Presumably the Fuchi mages don't know there are vampires in the Ordo. Most remiss of them (laughs).

The Fuchi delta clinic (and the cybermancy deal) were inherited by Novatech. The Tír na nÓg delta clinic is probably the same one responsible for enhancing the elven assassin Teachdaire.

¥
The question is, where does this end?

W
Until the corps develop true AI, who knows? Once they get that - if they get that - there's no need for the cyberzombies they've been playing with. They might still try to keep VIPs alive beyond the time of natural death, but that's different. Doesn't excite their research scientists so much.

¥
Fine. So we're left with the issue of what this is building up for us all.

W
That's why we're talking, really.

¥
The karma hazing is terrifying if it develops as we both fear it will.

W
A basic law of the universe is being violated. You can't do that without paying a price. There's some price for the magicians. They can cheat the drain, but they can't cheat the karma losses.

¥
But they're working on that.

W
They're working on forcing it one place farther down the line. The Azzies are developing their sacrifice rituals in this area.

¥
Oh, geez.

W
I told you about these people.

¥
Then it's going to get displaced out and beyond. It's going to - frag, where is it going to show up?

W
The astral. That's what I fear.

¥
Like the hole in the ozone layer?

W
Not an exact analogy but it'll do as an image.

¥
What are the exact effects going to be?

W
I don't know. Frankly, it's beyond computation. One day we're going to wake up and we're fragged. people aren't going to return from astral questing and travelling. Like your Amelia Earhart.

¥
Just dissapear in the wild blue yonder. Happens already.

W
But they'll dissapear without a trace - though pollution zones may develop where the hazing shifts around. I don't want to think about this.

(Pause)

Basically, cybermancy costs magicians karma, and the unnatural presence of cyberzombies causes a type of astral pollution known as karma hazing. The Azzies are trying to push the cost of paying the karma farther away...like using a credit card to buy something. But when the bill comes due, it'll cause massive astral pollution, and interfere with metaplanar travel as the pollution spills over. A perfect environment for the Horrors, as a matter of fact.

W
Look, I don't want to mention the Cabal, but I think you heard something about the death of an earlier world.

¥
You're talking an explosive end to something, some place, where the Cabal lived.

W
All right, we know what we're referring to. It wasn't a world, it was only an island on a world. Now think of a world as an island in space. Think of the same thing happening to it.

¥
Come on. Surely that's over the top.

W
Where do you want to start? Catastrophic events start with small rumbling and changes.

¥
But we've got to make this known! How can these people do this drek if they know they're bringing that down on themselves?

W
Oh, they know. The Ordo don't care. They're so arrogant they think it's a million years away and they're doing so little it will never happen. You know-"I can drek in my back yard all I want but pollution is someone else's problem."

¥
That feels right. I mean, that's their trait - arrogance.

W
The Azanians know the hazards. That's why they don't do it. That's why they may take steps to stop the people who do.

¥
And that leaves -

W
Right. That leaves the rest. That's where the brown suff's going to hit the fan.

¥
We have some other people to talk to, I think.

W
I trust your discretion. We'll speak later.

While the homeplace of the Cabal could be any number of locations in Shadowrun, it has certain parallels to the isle of Thera in Earthdawn - particularly the explosive ending.

>>>>>(That's it. If there were any more conversations, I don't have transcripts of them. I don't know who else these two may have spoken with, if anyone out there catches some ripples, any information would certainly be appreciated. And for all those folks who are going to lose some sleep about the Cabal, I don't know who the frag they mean by that either.)<<<<<
-Captain Chaos (16:44:22/12-11-56)

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